Cole Anthony scored six points over the final 6:30 and hit the go-ahead basket Monday afternoon for the Orlando Magic, who overcame a seven-point fourth-quarter deficit to edge the host New York Knicks, 98-94.
Paolo Banchero scored five of his team-high 20 points during the game-ending 17-6 run for the Magic, which trailed by as many as 11 in the third quarter before snapping a three-game losing streak. Wendell Carter Jr. scored 17 points while fellow reserve Anthony had 15 points. Chuma Okeke also finished with 15 points.
Miles McBride led the Knicks with a career-high 20 points in place of Jalen Brunson, who missed a second straight game with a bruised calf. OG Anunoby scored 17 points while Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo had 15 points apiece for New York, which has dropped two of three since a five-game winning streak.
The Knicks opened the third quarter on a 22-13 run and took their biggest lead at 74-63 on Randle’s old-fashioned three-point play with 4:05 left.
The Magic began inching back by scoring 10 of the final 14 points of the period before New York took a trio of seven-point leads in the fourth, the last at 88-81 on Anunoby’s 3-pointer with 7:38 left.
The Magic responded with their decisive surge, a span in which the Knicks missed eight straight field goals over a nearly six-minute span. Randle had a chance to tie the score or put New York ahead after Anthony’s go-ahead basket made it 90-89 with 3:42 left, but he missed two free throws 65 seconds later.
Banchero then scored a third-chance jumper and extended the lead to 94-89 following an errant 3-pointer by Anunoby.
McBride ended the Knicks’ field-goal drought when Goga Bitadze was whistled for goaltending on McBride’s layup. Bitadze and DiVincenzo each split a pair of free throws before Carter’s hook shot again lengthened the Magic’s lead to five points at 97-92.
Randle drove for a layup with 21 seconds left and Banchero hit a free throw with 16.2 seconds remaining before McBride and DiVincenzo missed 3-pointers in the waning seconds.
–Field Level Media
